Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Preserve

It is because of the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Preserve that Rover Tours is allowed to take our guests to North Island. An island with unspoiled beaches, never to be developed. We give thanks for Tom Yawkey's gift to SCDNR and to Mr. Yawkey's vision of preservation. North Island is designated a barrier island wilderness where no activities detrimental to its primitive character are permitted.

North Island has always been the beacon from the sea leading toward Georgetown, South Carolina. It was an island of exploration for the Spanish in 1526 and the first landing place of Lafayette, France's hero of the American Revolution, in 1777. It was a summer resort for aristocratic rice planters and their slaves from Georgetown and Waccamaw Neck until 1861. North Island's lighthouse, built in 1812, led thousands of sailing ships from all over the world past massive stone jetties and through Winyah Bay to Georgetown. Today, North Island is a sanctuary and laboratory for the study of nature's effects on this unique barrier island. Robert McAlister

Considered one of the most outstanding gifts to wildlife conservation in North America, the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center was willed to the SC Department of Natural Resources in 1976 by the late Tom Yawkey.

The Wildlife Center embraces North, South and most of Cat Island, three coastal islands located at the mouth of Winyah Bay in Georgetown County, SC. Composed of approximately 31 square miles of marsh, managed wetlands, forest openings, ocean beach, longleaf pine forest and maritime forest, the Center is principally dedicated as a wildlife preserve, research area and waterfowl refuge.Those familiar with the preserve's recent history know the present-day Wildlife Center has gradually changed from a hunting preserve to a waterfowl refuge over the years. Since post-Civil War Reconstruction, marshlands around Winyah Bay and the Santee Delta have been highly valued for waterfowl. When the former South Island Plantation came into the Department's hands, Yawkey had managed it in recent decades as a game preserve primarily for waterfowl.Before the end of Yawkey's ownership, the South Island preserve earned the reputation as one of the most outstanding waterfowl refuges on the Atlantic Flyway. To ensure his conservation practices would be advanced beyond his lifetime, Yawkey bequeathed the property to the SC DNR to be used for all time for wildlife management, education and research. A $10,000,000 perpetual trust fund was also left to the Yawkey Foundation Trustees who grant income from the fund for the property's total operation.Yawkey's will is a tribute to his foresight as a conservationist, for the property's preservation not only cements the linkage among some 66 miles of publicly owned pristine beach front stretching toward Charleston, but also provides an excellent 20,000-acre field laboratory where the potential for research is unlimited. The will stipulates that the islands will be used essentially as they were under Yawkey's stewardship. This site is NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. One may visit only with special permission and stay within the set boundaries.

The Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center has a long history of waterfowl management.Federally Endangered birds found at Yawkey are Wood Stork and Red-cockaded Woodpecker, which reside here year-round. Piping Plover are found here all except breeding season. Least Tern occur Breeding Season, Summer and Fall. Peregrine Falcons are found here all except breeding seasons. Watch Listed birds which occur at Yawkey year-round are: Bald Eagle, Common Ground-dove, Black Rail, Black Skimmer, Barn Owl, Loggerhead Shrike, Northern Bobwhite. Those found here Winter, Summer and Fall are American Bittern. Those found here Breeding Season, Summer and Fall are Wilson's Plover, Painted Bunting and Gull-billed Tern. At least 1000 waterfowl, seabirds, shorebirds and at least 500 colonial waterbirds occur here. (28 species of waterfowl, 16 species of seabirds, 33 species of shorebirds and 16 species of waders)The Yawkey Center is used by a wide diversity of birds all year.

The Yawkey Preserve is a 20,000 acre field laboratory where the potential for research is unlimited. North Island is designated a barrier island wilderness where no activities detrimental to its primitive character are permitted. South Island is held for the protection of waterfowl, and no hunting is permitted. The remainder of the property is held as a wildlife management area for migratory birds, native game, and other wild species.After the property's transfer to SC DNR, it was dedicated as a Heritage Preserve by the SC Heritage Trust, a departmental program established to preserve natural diversity in SC.

Rover Tours is committed in helping to educate and preserve South Carolina's fragile wetlands and Eco-systems today, because we care about tomorrow.